Friday, Sept. 22, 2017

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The inaugural Arizona Pure Water Brew Challenge brought together 26 breweries from across Arizona and tasked them with creating the best-tasting beer using treated wastewater.

“We had no idea how many breweries would compete, but we were shooting for around 32,” said Danielle McPherson from the WaterNow Alliance, which partnered with the challenge. “But we were really excited about the 26 that we did get because a lot of the time, breweries are busy with other commitments, and this takes a lot of time.”

The competition wrapped up earlier this month, and she said it went so well, they want to expand it beyond state lines next year.

The goal of the competition: Inform Arizonans about the importance of conserving water and how people can use technology to safely reuse it.

Organizers supplied the breweries with the water, which they obtained from three Arizona treatment plants, McPherson said. At that point, the water wasn’t potable – or safe to drink. The brew challenge team put the water through a five-step process that started with ultrafiltration and ended with chlorine disinfection.

Despite this extensive process and reassurances about the water’s safety, McPherson said people still have negative feelings about consuming it.

“Public perception is the biggest hurdle,” she said.

McPherson said one way to sway people is to change the words we use to describe it.

“We generally like to stay away from calling it wastewater,” she said. “We tend to use ‘reclaimed’ or ‘highly purified’ water instead.”

Mother Bunch Brewery competed in the AZ Pure Water Brew challenge. Lead bartender Marco Hernandez said customers have liked their creation, Agua Frida, a nod to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.